"Follow my lead, alright?" She muttered as the Followers grabbed their daggers and maces.

The seven Followers made a circle around the two.

Instantly, five of them moved towards Syl, and the remaining two towards Akane.

"They'll try to keep you busy while they kill me." Syl whispered as she pulled back, the swung dagger cutting the air in front of her chest.

A mace was quickly approaching her head. Syl barely had the time to draw a shallow wound on the first Follower's thigh before having to dodge.

The slightly wounded Follower staggered but did not fall.

Syl spun her spear, intercepting another coming from the right. She was forced to use the butt of the spear, which powerfully collided with that Follower's ribs.

"What the hell?" Akane muttered with wide eyes. "You're good at this-"

"Stay focused." Syl whispered, and Akane immediately crouched, letting a mace pass over her.

Unable to properly use her flames at a distance, Akane decided to settle on the next best thing.

'Just like against that thing…' She thought to herself, hand moving towards the enemy's stomach right in front of her.

Akane's palm made contact with his stomach and,

"Tsk." Akane clicked her tongue. Having taken too much time to use her Magic, the Follower had had the time to dodge. Not only that, but the second one was already swinging his dagger towards her neck.

She quickly jumped back, almost colliding with Syl.

"You need to stay aware of where I am at all times."

The Fox girl's ears twitched.

'I can keep track of where she's standing with my senses, but I can't do that AND use Magic at the same-'

"Shit…!" A Follower cursed.

Akane turned around slightly.

While blocking one Follower's punch, Syl had used the shaft of her spear to trip another.

The latter's momentum led to him stumbling…

"Alright," Akane muttered, her slit pupils focused on him. "We can do that."

And falling to Akane's feet, his head inches away from her hand.

An agonizing scream pierced through the forest.

"Good." Syl whispered as she thrust her spear forward, skewering one through the shoulder. 'They've completely let their guard down. Gotta attack now!'

The Fox's blazing touch was nothing like the High Priestess' intoxicating touch.

Although the end result in both cases was, of course, death.

The skewered Follower collapsed, blood spraying. A panicked expression appeared on his face as the female Hobgoblin took hold of her spear with both hands and prepared to lower its sharp tip towards his chest.

'No… I can't die! Not yet! Not without feeling the High Priestess' touch! Not without feeling that pleasure!'

The Follower's eyes turned bloodshot as the spear was quickly lowered.

'Did he just…' Syl raised an eyebrow. 'Bite his tongue?!'

Blood immediately rushed out of the Follower's tongue and, instead of choking him, it rose up and out of his mouth before solidifying, creating a barrier of hardened blood from which sparks sprang forth as it repelled the spear's sharp tip.

The rest of the Followers, noticing this, used their own daggers to draw wounds over their palms. Even those who had been wielding maces, turned out to have daggers tucked in their robes.

The hardened blood momentarily liquified as Syl stepped back, before turning into sharp arrows that rapidly moved towards her chest.

Syl crouched, dodging the arrows perfectly. However, those arrows did not have a natural trajectory.

'Fuck…!' She cursed as the arrows, instead of moving past her, stopped at once and spun to aim their sharp tips at her.

Syl's eyes widened as, before the arrows of blood could cross half the distance separating them from her, blazing flames appeared, burning off the arrows.

The Follower, having turned deathly pale, moved his finger and, the next second, all the blood that had left his body quickly re-entered his wounded tongue.

"They're not creating more blood." Syl whispered as she swiftly rose to her feet. "They're using the blood in their own bodies. They can't keep out for too long and, if you can burn enough of it, they will die."

"I see." Akane said. "You're welcome, by the way."

"..."

Blood quickly spilled out from the Followers' self-inflicted wounds and spun to cover their weapons before hardening.

"Even though it's around their weapons now, they can use it and move it in different ways, at any time." Syl explained.

"Hm." Akane nodded, remembering the Corrupted Draconic Spawn's Corrupted Skin. 'It's similar.' She thought.

One Follower lunged at Syl, mace dripping with hardened blood that shone like crimson glass. She pivoted, the butt of her spear cracking into his ribs with a thud. The Follower coughed blood but swung anyway. Her eyes widened as she noticed the coughed drops of blood hardening into tiny spikes. Syl sidestepped, barely dodging the drops of hardened blood that had been moving towards her eyes.

The blood around the mace moved to cover the weapon with countless sharp spikes!

It quickly moved towards Syl's side when,

"...!" The Follower clenched his teeth, and Syl's eyes narrowed.

The Fox had placed herself between the weapon and Syl, shielding the latter.

Akane had assumed that she would take the hit and use the opportunity to counter-attack, but that wasn't the case.

A second agonizing scream pierced through the forest.

Fearing for the Fox's life, the Follower had killed the momentum of his weapon, and suffered the consequences.

"They really don't want to hurt you…" Syl muttered, shocked by the measures that the Humans were going to in order to keep Akane from being harmed.

"Slave trade, huh? Guess they want to keep my skin as intact as they can."

Syl, who had fallen back to try and decrease the damage she would have received from the mace, rose to her feet. "Maybe." She whispered, stealing quiet glances at Akane's face.

Never had Syl seen such a wide smile on the Fox's face.

'If she's this happy killing Humans,' The female Hobgoblin spun her spear. 'The beef must be really, really bad.'

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